"Revivalist" Bands: Cool or Lame?

So, have any of you fine people ever heard of a British post-punk band called Savages? You haven't? Well, let me tell you all about 'em! They are a group of punky-looking girls who take great influence from early '80s post-punk and goth rock bands such as Joy Division, Bauhaus, U2, and vocally, Souxie and the Banshees. So, what do they sound like? Well...a mixture of all of those bands plus Souxie and the Banshees. Everything even down to the guitar and bass tones are copied


Seriously, let's take a look at those just-mentioned post-punk perpetrators for a moment. Those bands mainly took influence from artists like the Sex Pistols, but do they sound anything like them? No, not even remotely close. Savages mainly takes influence from bands like Siouxie and the Banshees, but do they sound anything like them? Yes! Almost exactly! See what I mean? I guess you have to start somewhere, but becoming carbon copies of bands who fit into a style that came and went decades ago may not be the best place to begin.

But is their music enjoyable? Sure it is! Their debut album Silence Yourself rocked pretty hard to my ears and was a wholly convincing effort of post-punk revivalism, it's just that I think it's a tad lame to recreate old styles for, well, what reason? Is there a good reason to consciously be a total throwback to an old and, in this case, irrelevant style? The meaning and motive behind post-punk is something that should certainly be reinstated in modern popular music, but for it to take any effect, the music has to be a NEW style, not a rehash of a style that already came, did its work, and left. The motive behind blatantly copying a rather small, early '80s genre of music in 2013 is really beyond me.

Along with all that "re-thrash" metal from a few years ago, I think these revivalist bands are certainly enjoyable at times, but I'd much rather listen to the original thing than hear a band like Havok play another Mustaine/Friedman aping solo. Now all we need is a band that tries to copy Queen to the fullest for me to completely remove any weight I have invested in revivalist trends.